Looking for Transition Drill

[rdtompki]

Background: Wife shoots steel challenge in the rimfire optics divisions. Starts are from Low Ready. Given our age, near 80, she's pretty quick shooting the faster 5 target stages under 2.5 seconds. We're both working on speeding up our eyes on target and I've encouraged her to "focus" on the center of the target versus simply looking at the target; she has a tendency to think about the targets, the centers of which ate 4'6" above ground, as being in a single plane; not the case.

I'm thinking of setting up a target array at 10 yards or so with targets at different heights to force learning how to drive the gun at the target, not depending on the appearance of the targets as being in a "line". She's shooting with most of her body weight on one leg given a very bad hip which doesn't help, but we're fortunate in being able to practice a great deal so she can adapt her stance to the particular demands of each stage; nonetheless, this issue certain affects of fast she can rotate and decelerate on the target.

Any drill suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[bofe954]

If I were shooting steel challenge which actually has a limited number of stages which are always the same, I would focus on those.

If there was a particular transition on a particular stage you thought she was losing time on (or missing on) you could just work that transition. Start out aiming at the prior target and transition to the next target at the beep.

You can buy banners of all of the steel challenge stages to dryfire-

http://steelshootbanners.com/index.html

To me USPSA rewards working fundamental things, because you don't know what you are going to have to do. For steel challenge you just want to become a robot.

There is the old story about a competitor who keeps missing a particular steel, finally they measure out the stage and realize that the steel is in the wrong spot, the competitor isn't missing, he's shooting where the steel should be...

[BN]

Maybe the X Drill. I learned it from Ernest Langdon. Set up 2 or 3 or more IDPA/USPSA targets. Shoot one shot at the body of the first target and then head of the next, then the body of the next and keep going back and forth switching the area shot on each target. Sorta like an X.

[rdtompki]

I'll cut some short 2x4's and set up a target array so we can focus on driving the gun to the target. While Steel Challenge stages are fixed one MD in particularly doesn't pay too much attention to setting the targets over the whiskers; with undulating ground some short transitions are very different from the ideal. This tends to bother my wife more than it should thus the benefit of drills or shooting Rimfire Challenge occasionally.

We do have a set of banners, an excellent tool particularly if one doesn't have the ability to practice stages at the range. Our club has three bays reserved for members and we have all 8 stages marked out. Practice is a once/week sort of thing.

[LittleLebowski]

Transition from paper plate target to 3x5 target at speed. Mix it up with reloads and more differently sized targets.

[Clusterfrack]

Crisscross is a good transitions and acceleration/deceleration drill.

2 Metric or IDPA targets. Shoot 2 at each A zone (body and head), transitioning to a different target for each pair of shots. Change order each run, so it’s primarily visual not body memory.

[Cory]

I like the blake drill for transition speed. It's like a bill drill but with 3 targets. The kicker is that it's intended to be shot in the same time frame as a bill drill. That means really working on moving the eyes while shooting as fast as you can. It works the skill independently, dragging it up to trigger speed.

Ben Stoeger's distance change up drill may be another great option. It works transition between targets of different distances, and thus difficulty.

[rdtompki]

Thanks, I'll take a look at those drills. Wouldn't hurt to buy a few paper target stands in any event.

[YVK]

For steel challenge, I'd do a steel challenge mimicking setup. For actual transition training I prefer a designated target drill. It keeps patterns and distances more random and variable that bunny stacks/X drill or Blake drill, thus you're practicing transition technique vs same distance - same pattern movement for a bit longer.

[rdtompki]

For steel challenge, I'd do a steel challenge mimicking setup. For actual transition training I prefer a designated target drill. It keeps patterns and distances more random and variable that bunny stacks/X drill or Blake drill, thus you're practicing transition technique vs same distance - same pattern movement for a bit longer.

I like the idea of juggling the target sequence. I'll try that at Saturday's practice. Did some double tap work today to see if my wife's grip was returning the dot on target. In those terms her grip seems pretty solid consistency being more important IMO than pure grip strength; double taps following a transition were still reasonably tight.

I think she understands the difference between driving the gun to the center of the target versus aiming at the center of the target and when I leave the center of our stage targets black it helps her better focus on the center and get better hits; you can still focus on the center of an all white target. Having drill targets at different heights should help both of us. She will never be able to rotate as fast as someone with two good legs, but she can make up for a bit of that by minimizing the time on target and improving her "draw" (from low ready).